The payments are paid out for attending plenary sessions and committee meetings. [Photo/ citizentv.co.ke]
Three counties went against the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) and paid MCAs allowances in excess of the Sh124,800 limit set by the commission.
Data from the Controller of Budget (CoB) for the year ending March indicates that members of the county assembly in Trans Nzoia, Murang’a and Homabay paid each of the MCAs allowance above the legally set limit.According to the data, each of the 40 MCAs in Trans Nzoia was paid Sh158,893 per month while those in Murang’a (52) pocketed Sh135,020 in allowances after every 30 days.In Homabay where there are 64 MCAs, each of the ward representatives received Sh127,747 in sitting allowances.The payments are paid out for attending plenary sessions and committee meetings, apart from their monthly salary of Sh165,000 and millage allowances, Business Daily reported.“Three County Assemblies reported higher monthly average expenditure on MCA’s sitting allowances than the recommended monthly maximum of Sh124,800,” said CoB Agnes Odhiambo in the half year report for the year ending June 2017.During the period under review, the 47 county assemblies spent 37.9 per cent of the approved budget allocation of Sh3.4 billion on sitting allowances alone.This represented a slight decrease from 38.2 per cent for the year ending June 2016 where Sh1.37 billion was spent.